Title of Teacher's Pet reclaimed!

Since I know my readers (ahem-my roommate LJ, Tim, on occassion, and my mom, apparently) are on the edge of their seats wondering about my final art class, I shall tell you (them... you...what?) that I have, in fact, reclaimed the title of Teacher's Pet. I stole it back from Ann in our last class, thank goodness. It is really hard for me to not be the favorite, and it was touch and go for a short time there. Did you really expect anything less?

In all seriousness, though, this will be the one where I pat myself on the back a little. I was really proud of my final drawing, even though it is, of course, incomplete [I was thinking maybe the incompleteness of all of my works could be my signature. Lazy me loves this idea because I could just stop when I ran out of time, got hungry, didn't feel like drawing anymore, and blame it all on my artistic vision. Flash forward to me explaining my art when I am a highly successful artist appearing in Newbury street galleries: "What, you think they appear incomplete, silly art viewers? No, no, these are not unfinished pieces. I believe that art is the manifestation of life in a visual form, and to complete a drawing would be to complete a life, meaning, death. My works are life at its fullest, yet raw, fragile, and incomplete."]

Moving on, here is the drawing in full incomplete glory (the other drawings I posted I was able to crop so that they appeared complete, but this one was drawn in such a way I couldn't do that. Oh well. The truth is out):

Here is one of my favorite sections-- the pink flower in the center. When drawing this part, I actually started to think in a different way. Now I have forgotten what the method behind my madness was, but if I remember it one day I believe I could be quite talented.

The last detail of this final drawing: the white flowers up in the corner. I think I love these because when I used to draw in high school I would obsess over white spaces and maintaining the purity of the white. This is the exact opposite of obsession, because I didn't have to worry about maintaining the white space. I threw grey in there with abandon. Pink! Blue even. Who knew white was so colorful? (Well, aside from the fact that white is the combination of all of the colors, as I learned in physics. I know, I know, I am a nerd. I can't help it sometimes.)


Since my mom sneakily lifted my blog's website off of my instant messenger profile, read it, and then admitted what she had done, this post goes out to her. Marmie, I wouldn't have you any other way. (I can't make it too easy for you, you know. Where would be the fun in telling you I had a blog and giving you the address? Where would the challenge be in that?)

Color Me Wonderful Part Deux

When I started taking this class, believe me, I was skeptical about this woman's philosophy on how to draw. I mean, draw from the inside out? Come on. Not to mention, we started each class laying on the ground. Yes, that is right. We had to lay on the ground to get inspired. Most times I fell asleep, daydreamed, or momentarily forgot I was in a class. Needless to say, I thought the whole thing was a little cheesy. I still do, to be honest. But, one thing I did learn: oil pastels don't suck. I actually kind of like them and I will tell you why. For all of you who know me, I have a little bit of a split personality. I can go with the flow and I can be kind of flaky and all that, but then there is this other side of me that is extremely OCD. At work I need to have everything organized and when I draw I like things to be perfect (which is why I normally stick to pencil). Oil pastels don't allow for perfection. So I quickly learned that when things don't turn out like you want them to, just go with the flow. So, that's what I learned from art class, kids. Go with the flow. Here is my art class in review:

Look at the beautiful colors! (See the first post about this art class to really understand what this image means).

My first attempt at drawing a still life (I call this "Dead Flowers"). This is actually one of my favorite incomplete drawings that I did. I really wish I had time to finish it. I sit next to this women Ann who is my archnemesis. She is done with her entire drawing before I even finish a flower. I am not even kidding.

Green on Green (This is when I really mastered the "Draw the foreground and the background at the same time" technique, which is why it doesn't look like anything in particular. My teacher loved it though, because the colors were just so "vibrant." It was after I almost completed this drawing that I retook my status of teacher's pet over Ann Speedy Fingers.)

An apple. (I spent 45 minutes drawing this apple. After the 20 minute warm up laying in the grass, the 15 minute schpeel on how some things are lighter than others (really? you don't say), and the 10 minute break after 45 minutes of drawing, you can see why I might not have finished the rest of the drawing in only 30 minutes. My teacher couldn't. She said, "You start out so beautifully, and then.... the rest just looks incomplete." Talk about stating the obvious.)


I am not sure what the last class will hold. I am not sure if my teacher is sure what the last class will hold. When we left last Tuesday she was muttering quietly to herself: "I know what we will do next class. Yes! I know just the thing." When we asked if we had any homework (as if), she said, "Oh no. Just bring yourselves. And your things. And your artistic spirit. That will do the trick." Hopefully I can find my artistic spirit before Tues and I will be all set.

Color Me Wonderful

As part of the Summer of Jenn initiative, I have decided to take a drawing class. I didn't feel like drawing left handed with my eyes closed like all of those beginner courses require (since I am such an experienced artist and all, I am way beyond blind contour drawings of my hand), but wasn't quite up for all that the Intermediate and Advanced levels entailed (I am not really sure what they entailed, but I would rather be safe than sorry), so I opted for a class entitled "Drawing with Color."

The First Class:
So, on Day 1 I go into the class equipped with my prismacolor pencils and a smile. (Actually, I wasn't really smiling, I just wanted you to know I was really excited to be there). Our teacher comes in and first informs us she is going to be "a little bit crazy" due to the fact she teaches art in an elementary school and it is the last week of classes. She failed to let us know that "a little bit crazy" in elementary school art teacher speak actually means "a lot crazy" in normal person language. Fortunately, this is not a wasted course. In that first class, I learned a lot, including, but not limited to, the following:

1. Always feel the paper before you buy.
2. Always feel the colors before you buy.
3. When drawing with colors, draw with feeling and from the inside out.
4. Oil pastels are the best choice of color.
5. The oil pastels that feel like lipstick are of the best quality, however, they melt when it is summer. They are perfect in the winter, though. (It was at this point in the lesson that my new best friend forever, Edith, started to pretend her oil pastels were lipsticks).
6. Colored pencil is too linear to really demonstrate the body and life of colors.
7. The last week of school makes teachers crazy.
8. Ochre is Edith's favorite color because it matches her shirt.
9. Homework, is not only optional, but also required. But really optional. But you should do the homework, not because it is required, but because it is fun.
10. BU has the worst art school ever. (If you went to BU for Art, my teacher probably doesn't like you.)

The Second Class:
This time, I came better prepared. [I picked up some oil pastels on the way in (at the art store I made a new friend who helped me pick out a good set. I told him that I didn't really like oil pastels that much because they are too chunky but I was being forced to use them for a class. He made me try-and feel- every type they had and we settled on the superior quality cray pas not because they were the best or the worst, but because I said "Cray pas! I had these in elementary school." We both felt that the memory of elementary school art might make me like oil pastels more than some stuffy brand. Plus, they were the closest I could get to the lipstick consistency without spending all of my money).]

Once in class I sat next to Edith again, because as I said before, we are now art class BFFs. She showed me what she worked on over the weekend. I said I liked it. Then she asked me if I was liking the oil pastels. I said, not really, I still like colored pencils best. She replied with, "Why? You like being in control?" Touche, Edith, touche.

The assignment du jour was to blend colors together. We had to use either oil pastels or regular pastels. Since I had gone out and bought the oil pastels I thought I might as well use them. So I went about the task of blending my limited palette of colors with one another. What I created was actually stripes of colorful browns (if you can imagine that). It looked a lot like shit. Then, we had to go around the room and look at everyone's color blends. When the teacher got to mine, she oohed and ahhhed and said how much she loved it. Then she made everyone gather round to ogle my apparently lovely brown stripes and describe the beautiful colors that were on there. One girl said one of the colors looked like New Mexico. The teacher told her that wasn't a color, did anyone see an actual color? Everyone was quiet so I said "Brown?" That wasn't a good answer, either, apparently-- although Edith chuckled with her French Canadian accent. (The correct answers were Taupe, Olive, Ochre, and Burnt Sienna.) The whole scenario reminded me of Freshman year "I want to blow" (another story for another day, perhaps). Incidentally, I am a fantastic blender of colors, and if this course was graded I would probably get an A.

Things I learned:
1. Brown is not brown.
2. If you think it is ugly, you are probably wrong.
3. Picasso was never good with color.
4. Oil pastels suck.
5. New Mexico is not a color, it is a state.
6. Cray Pas is fun to say.